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Inviting Others to the Feast
October 7, 2007 Rev. Dr. Christopher Carlson
There’s an old story I like to tell about a barber who was a believer and he also felt like he should do more to share his faith; but he was really scared to do so. The more he thought about it, the guiltier he felt; and the more he ought to share his faith with some of the customers that he had and one particular customer he knew really needed the Lord. This particular guy was coming in the next day; and so the barber was working himself up to it. He worked on himself and he worked on himself and finally the morning came and he was so nervous; but he was determined. So the customer came in and sat down; he put the apron around him and was sort of lathering him up for a shave. He got out his razor and he said, “Are you ready to die?” Seems like that sometimes with evangelism. We are scared to do it and sometimes when we do do it, we mess it up; and, so often, we don’t do it. Or, on the other hand, we look at it as taking people by the collar and saying “Are you ready to die?” Well this morning I want to talk about evangelism and sharing our faith in a little different way. We have been doing a series of sermons on “Better Together.” That’s my theme for today; that evangelism is “better together”. It is better as a church than simply doing it as individuals. My belief is that, with regard to sharing our faith, we need some convictions that we must have which I’ll share with you.
First I’d like to read a passage from Luke chapter 14. In this particular passage, Jesus tells two parables, a real short one and a longer one and they are very much related. They are together, talking about the same thing, from a different point of view. Listen to the word of God.
Luke 14:7-24 When Jesus noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come for everything is now ready.’ “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ “ ‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’ ”
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God!
Would you pray with me?
Father, thank you for the feast we are promised in knowing you. Now Lord help us to feast on the word that is preached, what you have for us. May it touch our hearts and minds and prepare us for the supper we will have in just a few minutes. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Someone once said that most people have opinions but not many have convictions, and it is the convictions we have that change the world; that make an impact on what we do. I think there are several convictions we need to have with regard to sharing our faith. The first conviction we need to have is that knowing Jesus is vital. Knowing Jesus changes your life. Knowing Jesus Christ makes a difference. Let me put it this way. If you knew the secret of curing AIDS or cancer, wouldn’t you share it? Wouldn’t you do everything you could to share that secret? Or how to end hunger and save the lives of hundreds of children everyday who starve to death, wouldn’t you shout it from the house tops? Well we have a message that is even more important than that. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the message of healing both now and forever. It is the message of salvation both now and forever. It is the message of peace. It is the message of purpose. It is as important as nothing else is and yet many churches fail to share it very well. I mentioned one reason a minute ago and that is fear. We are just afraid but I also think there are some other reasons.
I think for one thing we have lost the sense of urgency with regard to the gospel. We have bought into the world’s philosophy which says God accepts everybody and no one will be lost. That’s the world’s philosophy not the bible’s philosophy. The bible says “Yes, there will people who are lost. There will be people who will not come to the feast.” There will be people who will be outside. It is easy for us to sit by and watch our neighbors die and yet remain lost. I think we’ve lost the sense that something actually will happen to them that’s not very good, or they will disappear from eternity. I also think there is another reason, and that is that maybe knowing Christ is not as dynamic for us as we’d like. You know we live in a world full of advertising and I think people look at faith at that way too. It is kind of like buying a car; you choose a Ford or a Toyota or a Chevrolet and it’s your personal choice. One is just as good as another, one might be a little better than another; but you choose the car you want to drive. The same is true with faith. We have Christianity; other people have other things. It is no different. We need to have the conviction and the belief that knowing Jesus is what it is about, that it means something, that it is real. I’m not talking about perfection but I am talking about transformation. To know Christ is to be transformed, it is to be put into a different direction. I know some of you are old enough to remember old Polaroid pictures. You remember the kind; you take the picture and pull out the film and it started developing before your eyes. Now I know some of you are just too young for that, but those of us who are older remember that. You remember how you would pull it out and you’d watch it develop; well, that’s what we’re like in our Christian lives. We are developing, but we are changed and in the end we will be like Jesus in heaven; but it means something now.
Well how are we to do that? I read of a conference that happened several years ago in which missionaries were invited and pastors were invited. One of the speakers posed the question, “What image do you have with regards to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, is it like plucking a brand out of the fire or is it like inviting someone to a feast?” Most of the pastors said for them it was like plucking a brand out of the fire. Maybe we can understand that. Often a pastor’s life is spent rescuing people. I describe my job sometimes as being a fireman, running to put out this fire or that fire. Sometimes it’s true. People come to you who are desperate for change, who need to be rescued, plucked from the fire. But for the missionary, their view was that they were like emissaries of the king, coming to invite people into a life different than they have ever known. A life of peace where there was none, a life of joy which overcomes sorrow, a new relationship which overcomes loneliness. I think both are biblical, but I tend to fall into the second category more than the first. I think if that helps you, you ought to see sharing your faith as inviting people to eat, to a feast, to a different life, to dinner with God, to a feast that changes their lives. Jesus makes a huge difference and we must have that conviction.
The second conviction that we need to have is that the church exists for the sake of the world. The church exists for the sake of the world. We see that everywhere in the bible. Even Israel, we hear that the Israelites were the chosen people, but they weren’t chosen just for themselves. They were chosen to be witnesses of the true God and by and large they failed. The church sometimes fails too. Some churches do better than others but it is easy to fall into the habit of just existing for ourselves. There is another old story about a church that started up and they were very excited. They put out a big sign in front of the church that said “Jesus Only.” But as time past and things wore out, and the sign itself wore out; some of the letters fell off and the only thing that was left in the end was “ us Only.” Churches do that. They become wrapped up into themselves. They become buildings with people who meet and enjoy each other and very little happens on the outside. People, we need to know that the church exists and we exist for people on the outside. That means that this church is not ours. Oh, in some sense it is; you have to take ownership of it. But in the end it is Jesus’ church. Even if you were born here and were married here, it is Jesus’ church, not just ours. How are we doing? Well like most human organizations, in some ways we do pretty well; in other ways, not so hot. In the last four years since I’ve been here, I am not taking credit, it is just what I have observed, we have seen you give over one hundred thousand dollars a year to mission causes. In a couple of the years it was one hundred and forty thousand, which is great. We have seen more people go on mission trips and more people take part in painting houses and doing other things. We have seen a lot of ways. One thing I was very proud of recently in the yard sale. There was a family that lost their whole house to a fire and we just said, “Come in and take what you want.” I thought that was just great. On the other hand, you know, we like each other but it is hard for us to welcome people from the outside. As a note of challenge, any of you in a small group, can you tell me the last time you invited someone else into your group? I love the fact that we have small groups but almost all of them are closed. That’s a great place to invite new people. It is a great place to invite your friends. In a lot of different ways, we are trying to create opportunities to invite folks here but we also need to go out and tell the word to others.
So the third conviction we need to have is that people need to see what we do more than they need to hear it. I remember when I first got out of seminary and took a church and preached my first sermon. I had a guy come up to me and say, “You really preached the word. That’s great. But you know what else you need? Those folks out there need to know that you love them, because they won’t hear you unless they know that.” And he was right. He was exactly right. Isn’t that human? Jesus did the same thing. He healed people, he listened to people, he helped them and then they were ready to hear his words. Later James will tell us, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only,” and John will say, “Let your words follow your actions.” I think that is a strategy for our church. People need to be able to drive by this place and see us as more than just the building that has a cemetery. Nothing wrong with a cemetery; but we need people to know that we are in the community. We need to think about how we can overcome evil with good in this community so that people know that Faith Church is here; then they will listen. We need to be able to say, too, we can’t just do, but we have to do first. What are we doing in our own lives? You know, Buck gave a wonderful illustration last week. He said a lot of people look at their lives as like a cruise ship. They are just along for the ride, enjoying what they can, essentially wasting their lives. But the image is that we really are in a battleship and in a battleship everybody has a job. We are all in this together. We are all responsible, and as a church it is more powerful to say “we” than “me.” So in some sense I am encouraging you. You know, I am not very good at knocking at doors and sharing Christ with strangers. Very few people are; but together, we can think about how we can do it as a group, because we are in it together. What does it mean to have influence in this community? I don’t know all the answers but we need to pray about that.
I would just simply close by asking you, where you can begin is to just think about someone in your family or your own neighborhood or someone who is near you that you could simply pray for. That’s where it really starts. Pray for them and then pray for our church, that we can be better at reaching out, that we don’t simply exist for ourselves, that we can invite people to the feast because it is good and it’s necessary. It changes lives.
Would you pray with me?
Father I begin with myself and say that I have not shared you like I should. We are all too busy Lord, sometimes. We all have goals wrapped up in ourselves. Help us see the need out there, Lord; that people need to know you. Help us to begin meeting that need by doing good in this community, whatever we need to do, whether it is to feed the hungry or change things, or simply minister to people that are hurting. Give us eyes to see what we can do that we may not only do, we can say. We can say and point people to you. Help us Lord, we pray, in your name. Amen
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